Headbutt

"Dragon Breath!" I shouted.

A beat later, Long commanded, "Twister!"

My first thought was that his response to my mid-level dragon attack was a weaker attack. Possibly he thought his wyrmnir was strong enough that it could produce a low-level cyclone that wouldn't be dwarfed by my wyrmnir's more powerful attack as would normally be the case. You know—kind of like mutually-assured destruction when two pokémon attack simultaneously. But that wasn't his intention at all. Elly took a moment to breathe in and convert all her energy into the not-quite-fire, not-quite-electricity breath attack that she was so good at, particularly after a spicy breakfast. In that brief instant, Keeper was able to generate a whirl of energy that surged in front of him. The whirlwind was quicker to form than the breath attack because of its weaker inherent power. When the Dragon Breath hit the Twister, the two attacks merged into a single, devastating tornado. The heat was enough to make me sweat even while surrounded by ice and snow and while standing more than twenty meters away. Even though some of the initial Dragon Breath swirled around and was flung in Keeper's direction, some of it also flew back at Elly. As the tornado died in between the dueling dragons, they each suffered only minor damage from their canceled attacks.

As it turned out, Long was right about Elly. She wasn't eager to hurt me, nor did she particularly wish to pick a fight with Reggie or Siggy a second time. She was just a growing girl going through her cranky phase. It was the same phase my sister had been stuck in ever since she was old enough for the Elder to start asking other ladies in the village to come over and talk to Brooke for him. Some days were worse than others. In all honesty, Elly was easier to handle in a bad mood than Brooke… and less of a threat to my life.

When Elly evolved, her personality intensified. That was part of the explanation, anyway. Like Long had suggested, deep down inside she was still the same big, steel poochy that I had purchased that day in Cuprum City, but she was changing. Elly was stronger and more capable of independence now. When she grew so large that just being nearby threatened me, something in her mind triggered that I wasn't the alpha in the relationship anymore—that she could take care of herself better without me. And so fighting back was just a power struggle, and one that I completed successfully when I refused to cower but elected to fight back. Technically Reggie and Siggy fought back for me, but the point is that I didn't allow Elly to run rampant without delivering a punishment for the act. She was over it for now, but I worried about what would happen the next time she gets in that mood.

Our battle continued for only another five minutes while I regained my confidence in Elly and learned the lesson behind the advice Long had offered me. "Sometimes the point to training in a pokémon gym isn't to teach your pokémon new moves of a certain type. You can also learn the strengths of weaknesses of species you don't use in order to help your pokémon grow more efficacious in battle."

That was what he had told me when I voiced my concerns about the Bird Gym in Wolfram. Yes, I have a flying pokémon who can learn a few things, I had explained, but I don't have any actual bird pokémon. He had argued that not every trainer that came through his Dragon Gym was learning how to train a dragon. On the contrary, fewer than fifty percent of his visitors had a dragon pokémon in need of Long's help; rather, they wanted to become strong fighters against dragons. It was just as vital that anyone with aspirations of success in the pokémon world should learn about the pokémon he does not command as the ones he does command.

Long demonstrated the necessity to me through the training exercise. Every time I called out an attack that a dragon-type pokémon would use, he would counter it somehow, such as nullifying a Dragon Breath through a Twister. He also used examples from his battle with the Champion Nelson. Aside from being the regional champion, Nelson came into the contest knowing already that Long was a user of dragon pokémon and that they are some of the strongest pokémon out there. He selected his team based on that knowledge and trained them to use techniques that would defend against dragon attacks and target dragon weak spots. In that battle more than any other I'd witnessed, Nelson showed me that a real champ knows how to defend as well as attack.

Altogether, it made sense to me. I would never become the champ if some kid came along with a bird pokémon and kicked my butt just because I never practiced against them and never learned how to hold attackers at bay.

The extra reason for ending our session a little earlier than I would have liked was a business one: Long had a gym to run. He had only allotted an hour to one-on-one training with me.

"I'm sorry we cannot continue to battle," he said to me. "Today will be a busy one. Three trainers have made appointments to challenge me for a Silver Badge."

"Are you bringing them up here to the Sky Arena?"

He grinned. "Maybe I'll spare them the pain of battling Keeper for today. It will give him time to rest after the workout Elly has provided. The respite will benefit him."

Elly didn't seem to want the breather, though. She was yowling up a storm in Keeper's direction. From his reaction, she was obviously a bother. Anytime he turned away, she would ram her face into his hide, hoping to turn him back to face her. He wasn't having any of it, though. When she got to be too much, he raised his paw and smacked her hard across the forehead, deftly missing the sharp protrusions sticking out of her face.

"What is going on with her?" I asked Long. "She hasn't shut up all morning."

"You do not see it?" he asked.

"See what?"

He grinned again, giving me the same look one might give a five-year-old asking a grown-up question. "She is in heat."

"I don't see how," I replied instinctively. "It's cold as a nervous jynx's feet ever since the hot springs died."

Long shook a finger at me. "That is not what the term means."

"Oh." Slowly the full meaning dawned on me. "Oh!" And then, "Ew!"

"It is nothing to worry about," Long said. "Dragons do not experience the same hormonal cycles as mammalian pokémon might, but they do go through mating seasons all the same."

I asked, "Can't you do something to help?"

"No. Keeper is much older than she is and shows no interest in breeding. Her condition is completely natural. She shouldn't give you too much trouble for it. I would expressly recommend keeping her away from male dragons, though. Presumably you are not ready to deal with a litter of newborn dragmors."

"Um," I stammered. "All male dragons?"

He nodded. "Strange as it may seem for cross-species mating, it is possible or even likely that any dragon pokémon would recognize the change in her hormones and react accordingly."

"There are a lot of dragons out there I don't know about," I said. "Thank goodness for my pokédex."

"Be careful about that," Long said. "Compatibility among potential mates is not based exclusively on what we consider to be dragon-type pokémon. Any pokémon that has draconic ancestry can be considered a dragon. Remember my arbok? How about the sceptile you saw Nelson use against me? Each of them is part of the dragon taxonomy, compatible with more obvious dragons. Think of the many pokémon you have seen train in this gym. I do not specialize in dragon types but in the dragon taxon. Identifying the creatures Elly responds to won't be as easy for you as reading the pokédex."

"Could I just watch how they act around one another and remove her from any pokémon that show some insurmountable attraction to her?" I asked.

"It's riskier, but that might work," he said. He scratched his head and considered the solution for a moment. "On the other hand, dragmors are a rare breed. If you choose to allow Elly to breed, there is a day care designed for pokémon in Hydrargyrum Town."

"A day care? Isn't there one of those in all the major cities? Like this one?"

"Yes, but the one in Hydrargyrum is the only fully equipped facility in all of Perioble. They have an entire division dedicated to pokémon breeding and not just to personal care. If you bring your wyrmnir there, the proprietors should be able to find a suitable mate. Otherwise, she will return to normal in time. To deal with her in the meantime, here are some tips to care for her. Firstly, reduce her contact with other pokémon, as I mentioned. You are unable to detect it with your human senses, but Elly's body is producing a powerful hormone that will attract potential mates for her. Keeping her in her pokéball will help allay the production of such a scent.

"Keeping her hidden may also help with her behavior. Pokémon in heat oftentimes exhibit excessive anxiety and excitation. Just give her time and a little space, or else keep her inside the pokéball. You can help soothe her by brushing clean her scales or playing calming music. Take these tips and you two will be fine. Now I'm afraid I really must leave you. Do take my phone number and contact me sometime for a rematch. I would cherish the opportunity to view your continued development."

Long left me with the option of training Elly in the Sky Arena for as long as I wished that day. I did stick around for a while and let her burn off some steam. Like he had said, Elly was overly rambunctious. The arena was like a big playground for her. Even though I didn't really understand what she was going through, I can say that being in heat involved a lot of head-butting the mountains. I used to do that to the wall a lot as a kid, especially if I was sick. As uncomfortable as it was giving myself a headache, it always focused my pain into my head instead of whatever was ailing me… plus it felt good when I stopped. Vomiting means it's working, right?

I couldn't be sure based on a single training session how difficult it would be to handle Elly in her condition. But by the time the lunch alarm sounded on my Hermes, I figured that bump on Elly's head was as big as it needed to be. I had never seen steel swell like that.

While I was in Argentum City, it occurred to me I should hit the slopes again. What's the expression? Dust some powder, I think. I mean "go skiing." That's where Nova went. Our plan was to reconvene shortly after lunch and head back to Wolfram Village.

I looked to Reggie for advice. "What do you think, Reg? We can head back to the gym and scrimmage with some dragons, we can surf the mountainside, or we can go get something to eat." His ears perked up and his jaw dropped, loosing a short mew. He knew that word. It was one of his favorites. "Yeah, I think food is the right way to go."

We stopped in a little café in the area that used to be in summertime. You know, before I spoiled the environment by removing the heat source… and giving it to the enemy. Who then used it against someone else in order to steal another legendary pokémon. How depressing.

Trying to keep myself positive, I plopped down at the bar and ordered six dishes of spicy barbecue. It was one of their old dishes, but it was more popular since the beach disappeared beneath blankets of snow. Reggie downed five bowls of it and spent the next half hour alternating between hiding in the bushes and dragging his butt across the snow. Just one bowl was enough for me. I got away with only sinus drainage and the urge to pee, but the latter was because I drank a pitcher of water to keep my tongue from calling the fire department on me.

When I emerged again, I looked to Reggie. "That was almost as bad as the Salamander Spice. Double or nothing for dinner?" He tilted his head to the side so far that he fell over. "Yeah, you're right. I like my intestines where they are." While he was on his back, I bent over and scratched his belly for just a moment while he stretched as far as his huge paws would go. And then I retreated quickly. I barely whisked my arm clear of his claws at the moment he decided he'd had enough.

"Hey," said a voice nearby. It came from a guy dressed in a heavy, sky blue snowsuit with a knit cap pulled down tightly over his head. He was just walking up to the café counter as Reggie and I were headed away. "You look familiar."

"So do you," I said, although it was a lie when I said it. If he had been any more covered up, he wouldn't be able to breathe. We each took a step closer to one another. It seemed like a silly standoff to me, so I made a face—exaggerating my cheeks and opening my eyes widely to get a good look.

"You look a little like a guy I met in Stannum Village a few weeks ago," said the guy.

"I was in Stannum Village a few weeks ago," I confessed, holding staunchly to my expression. Suddenly it hit me who the guy was and I lost my ludicrous face. "Drew?"

"Gus," he remembered. With a smile he extended his hand in the exact same motion he had done so when he tried to usher me out of the Hydrogen Emperor's childhood home. It was the same kind of handshake the Elder's friends would give me when they wanted me to leave so they could tattle on me to my adoptive dad.

He glanced down and then furled his brow as his gaze returned to meet my eyes. "Did you know your fly is open? And there's a pencil sticking out of it?"

I looked down and couldn't believe that he was right. Embarrassed but not about to show it, I said, "Yes, I do."

He pressed his lips together and watched me warily for a moment. "Forget I asked." Suddenly a look of epiphany crossed his face. "Hey! Aren't the marshals after you?" he tattled.

I tried my best to look surprised, like I could not possibly have the slightest inkling to what he was referring. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, a little while after you disappeared down into that secret basement, the village suffered from a few earthquakes and a sudden heat rush. When things calmed down, a man with a big hat and a tin star emerged from the basement. He said he was with the Perioble Marshals and he had cornered two criminals down there. He would have arrested them except they had pokémon with them." Drew narrowed his eyes at me. "I know you are aware that Stannum disallows pokémon to enter the village proper."

"Don't look at me!" I protested. A quick silence passed between us as Drew glanced at Reggie. "Don't look at him, either. He was inside his pokéball and locked in that silo thing at the front gate, just like they requested."

"So you're saying you didn't break any laws?"

I hemmed and hawed for just a second. "I was trespassing. But you deduced that fact as soon as I showed up on the property."

"Yes, I did," he said, obviously proud of himself. "You didn't do anything else illegal?"

"No. That marshal is crooked," I said.

Drew flinched and looked puzzled. "Really? He seemed pretty legit to me. He carried himself with the most confident swagger I've ever seen. I wonder if he ever considered putting a patent on that walk."

"Um… okay?"

Drew glowered at me. "Definitely didn't seem like the kind of man who would be scared off by a kid, but then again, he said your pokémon attacked him. His jacket was scorched. The cinders were still burning on the fabric when he called the village sheriff's department."

I put my hands in front of me to distance myself from that story. "I never burned him!"

"You have a fire-type immolion right there," he pointed out.

"That's beside the point," I said with a scoff. "He burned himself on his own pokémon, which he stuffed in the ammo shelf-thing for that gun he carried in his waistband."

"Why would he do something like that?" Drew asked.

"Let me answer that question with another question," I said. "Why was he afraid of two teenage criminals and their pokémon if he had a gun?"

He folded his arms over his chest and stared at me. I could almost see the wheels turning inside his head. Drew seemed like a really smart guy. If anything would convince him of my innocence, it was pointing out logical flaws in Ray's story. It seemed to be working.

"You told me your pokémon were in the village silo," he said finally. "Just now, you said the two criminals each had pokémon."

"I was going by your story, judging his reaction given the worst possible conditions," I replied calmly. "I also said I was not a criminal, and that remains true. Except for the trespassing part. In my defense, the only way I could know that place was off limits was by the sign out front, and I try not to believe everything I read."

Drew nodded. "I also told you."

"And I forgive you," I said. Changing the subject through arguing the point wasn't working too well. Time to introduce my alter ego with experience in the military, Major Segue. "How's the climate research?" I asked him.

"Good memory," he said. That was easy. He may have been just as eager to change the conversation as I was. "I'm only studying the atmosphere and my research results aren't compiled yet," Drew said. "I've collected day-to-day temperature readings and checked the Doppler radar for patterns in meteorological changes for less than a week. It'll take a lot longer than that before I can draw any definitive conclusions. Aside from that, I am still waiting for the Department of Weather to get back to me with the readouts from a decade ago."

"You still haven't compared today's weather to the past weather?" I asked.

"Records are retained available on the internet only for the past year. That's useful information, but to my earlier point, it takes more time than that to prove change, especially in something as dramatic as the environment."

I smirked. "All of that being the long way of saying you don't know anything about how different the climate is yet."

"I know plenty about the current weather of the mountains," he said sounding somewhat defensive. "But listing the daily temperatures does about as much to explain the climate as taking your daily temperature explains your overall likelihood of disease. Let's not even discuss how climate isn't simply the way the atmosphere affects the region. A climate system comprises the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the lithosphere, and the biosphere. My research is preliminary at best. Studying changes in the atmosphere takes time, but it's what I'm studying. That's all I'm technically studying. I know of other researchers here who are in the process of studying the mountains and the lithosphere. No doubt they will find groundbreaking news about what caused the hot springs to die out. Anything I learn from them is outside my research grant."

Pointing at him, I beamed. "I see what you did there. Groundbreaking?"

"That was an accidental pun," Drew said. "Seriously, something huge is going on. Even the biosphere is changing rapidly. Gossip spread this morning that someone spotted a rare pokémon on the mountain—something that has never been seen here before. And that's just today. There have been other, similar rumors over the past ten days. Whatever changed around here, it's huge. No one is going to figure it out within a matter of weeks. My graduation will come and go long before we can pinpoint a certain cause."

Hesitation settled in on me. That was a lot of information to take in from only a simple question about his college studies.

"Go back to the part about the rare pokémon," I requested.

"Of course," he said, sounding impatient. "It's no surprise your greater interest would be in the appearance of a noivern and not in the collapse of the environment around you."

I waited before asking, "What's a noivern?"

Drew produced a look of disgust. "Aren't you the trainer? Shouldn't you know about other pokémon?"

"I can't be expected to know everything, can I?"

"Do you know anything?" he asked.

I froze for just a moment. "I'm going to be honest with you. That hurt me. Right here," pointing to my heart. "You should buy me a bowl of the spicy barbecue here as penance." Even Reggie buried his nose in the snow at the mention of spicy barbecue. Suddenly the bushes sprang to life, bursting into flame. I was stunned into inaction, but fortunately the cold air and snow smothered the flames for me within sixty seconds.

Reggie and I made eye contact. "Did that stuff give you spontaneously combusting poops?" He only stepped forward and rubbed his face into my arm. At his weight, he could have knocked me over.

"Something tells me you will live longer if I do not provide you anymore spicy food," Drew said. "But I do apologize for my glib remark." He sighed a deep, heart wrenching sigh. "I feel increasing frustration with my research here. A creature such as a noivern has never been seen in this region before. Not once in the entire recorded history of either pokémon or the region's ecology."

"What kind of pokémon is it?" I asked. Rare pokémon on the mountain sounded exactly like what I needed. My team was still only five deep. Traditional trainers got along best with six pokémon in their arsenal. I was doing pretty well for myself with only the five, but packing in a sixth pokémon to fill out my roster was definitely what the gym leader recommended. And a rare pokémon! Who wouldn't want that?

Drew said, "You should look it up online. You might at least find a picture."

"I have a pokédex," I said, whipping it from my satchel and failing to scroll successfully thanks to the slick material on my thermal gloves. I removed one glove and scrolled through an alphabetical listing of pokémon.

"No, that won't work," he explained. "A pokédex only gathers information on pokémon its lens has witnessed. If you've never seen one, the pokédex should lack any entry for it."

"Here it is," I said, pulling up a picture of a bat-like pokémon that appeared to have sound speakers in its head. They reminded me a lot of the whismur/exploud that Brooke caught-slash-ruined my eardrums with. "Ultrasonic waves that can crush boulders, huh?" That didn't sound like something I wanted to go anywhere near. Certainly my pokémon didn't deserve that kind of punishment in battle. But then I noticed, "Oh! It's a dragon, too. Long said I should keep Elly away from them for a while."

Drew was still struck by the contents of my pokédex. "I'm impressed. Is it possible you've seen a noivern and forgot?" The question seemed more rhetorical than intentional. He hunched over and stood tall in succession, each to get a look at my pokédex on all sides. "Let me guess: You didn't receive that device brand new."

"This old thing?" I said. "No. I got it from an old man."

"An old man who is well-traveled, I'd wager," he said. Extending his palm toward me, he asked, "May I?"

"Sing some Vanilla Ice?" I said, completing the sentence for him. "Of course you may. Not only is it the appropriate environment for such an aptly named rapper, it would be a tremendous honor to watch someone as nerdy as you dance a little 'Ninja Rap.'"

He was unamused. "I would rather examine your pokédex for a moment."

"Oh, that," I said, dropping the device into his palm. "Go nuts." Speaking of which, I yanked my oversized snow glove back over my knuckles. It did not take long for the cold to get under my skin.

Drew didn't have nearly so much trouble scrolling through the pages. When he poked the screen, the system responded instantly as if he were touching it directly. "How are you doing that?" I asked.

"They're touch-screen gloves," he said, offering me a glimpse at the fingertips. Most of the fingers were the same black fabric as the gloves, but the thumb and forefinger had some sort of pointed padding sewn inside the gray cloth to facilitate screen poking. "You should get some. Well worth it in the snow."

I smiled. "That will be second on my wish list this year, first being transportation to someplace warmer."

He stopped paying attention to me. Every bit of focus in that information-packed cranium was centered on my pokédex. He gave me a flabbergasted look and then returned to the pokédex. "You have listed in here every pokémon I've ever heard of, plus a few hundred I haven't. It's unreal. This list includes the pokémon of legend I told you about—the ones that are supposed to be only a myth."

"You mean the craisins?" I asked.

"The Creators!" He sounded like my joke was going to give him an aneurism. Settling down, he decided, "There must be some sort of information hack on this device. I mean, the fire dragon Salamorder couldn't possibly be a living creature. Its fire was said to scorch whole lands in a single blow."

I said, "I think the word is hyperbole. It was hot, sure, but nothing that bad." He made a face, but I was rescued by the sudden ringing of my phone. I answered to hear Nova's voice. She reminded me that we were scheduled to head back to Wolfram this afternoon while the weather was still clear and before the sun set. I promised to meet her at the Pokémon Center post haste.

"My ride is here," I told Drew as I reclaimed my pokédex. "But listen, I'd like you to give me a call as you learn more about the changing climate. This is fascinating stuff." I wrote down my number on a take-out menu from the café and handed it to him.

"Really?" he asked. "I suppose I can let you know if I learn anything unusual. Maybe it'll be helpful to have your number in case I have more questions."

"You probably will," I agreed, "because I'm about to suggest where you should go after lunch. It might be difficult to find now that the hot springs are drying up, but it shouldn't be too bad if you know where to look. Start at the southern end of town and on the exit path, look to your left for a little walkway you can traverse to sidle around the mountain. I'm sure you'll find a few answers to your questions down there."

Drew cocked an eyebrow. "What will I find?"

"The Salamander Temple."


Thanks go again to BNVshark for contributing Drew to the story. It's helpful to have a character researching the way the environment has changed since the events at the Salamander Temple. It has only been a short time so far and the city hasn't recovered fully yet, but soon enough the economy will bounce back. Odds are pretty good Drew will play a significant role in that. But that's a story for another time.

I also have to extend thanks to Riverlightillusion for proofreading this chapter for me and locating a few typos. With his help, no one else in my story will be shrouded in green clocks!

Next time, Gus and Nova return to Wolfram Village. Gus begins his training to learn how birds battle, but he must hold off on challenging the Gym Leader because of personal habits the man picked up from the Jinn Temple. What is Gus going to find when he goes to investigate the temple? If you've noticed a pattern already, then you can probably guess. But to learn the philosophy of worship, you'll have to read!

Trivia: Accommodating pokédex functionality given the prevalence of modern smart phones is weird. How would you not know what a pidgey is when the internet is available everywhere for free? I wanted to make it seem like a portable encyclopedia and yet still let it record new pokémon like a game/anime hybrid. More details will be revealed into my ideology as the story goes, but it starts with the pokédex downloading information on pokémon identified in person so it will be quicker to retrieve at a later date.